Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins says his office is keeping a close eye on the Confederate statue on the courthouse lawn to guard against vandalism.
“I’ve actually had a couple of very good quality cameras installed to monitor our courtyard monument,” Jenkins said.
He added that those cameras were put in place more than a year ago, when the first talk of monument destruction began to surface. Jenkins said that after Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville over that city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park, he had personnel from the jail at the east end of the courtyard make “hourly physical checks” of the statue.
“Lenn Park [located near Stevensburg and the site of a Civil War skirmish] is also on heavy extra patrols around the clock,” Jenkins said. “The town police and the state police are also on the same page.”
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One woman was killed, 19 people were injured and two state troopers involved in providing security died in a helicopter crash in a clash between white supremacists marching to oppose the Charlottesville statue’s removal and counter-protesters Saturday.
That led to additional calls to remove Confederate monuments across the South. Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged state legislators and municipal officials across Virginia Wednesday to relocate Confederate monuments from public spaces to museums.
The Fredericksburg region was the site of extensive Civil War fighting, including the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse, as well as battles at Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain in Culpeper. Memorials and monuments are common, but many of them are on protected battlefield land overseen by the National Park Service.
Caroline and Westmoreland counties have Confederate monuments on their courthouse squares.
Caroline County Administrator Charles Culley said he was not aware of any requests from the public to remove the Confederate Soldiers’ Monument from the front of the courthouse in Bowling Green. The monument was dedicated in 1906 and depicts a Confederate private standing at parade rest.
Westmoreland County Administrator Norm Risavi said he had received no complaints about the monument there.
“We have received no requests regarding the Confederate monument one way or the other,” he said, adding that he not discuss security measures for county property.
Fredericksburg City Manager Tim Baroody said the city has received a couple of complaints about the stone block at the corner of William and Charles streets. It’s thought that slaves were once made to stand on the stone to be auctioned off.
“We are talking about next steps,” Baroody said.
He said that the city hasn’t received any requests to rename Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. 1) since University of Mary Washington students unsuccessfully petitioned City Council last October to change it.
“That hasn’t come back up, quite frankly,” he said.
About two dozen residents showed up at the Stafford Board of Supervisors meeting earlier this week to call on county officials to take a stand against a large Confederate flag flying near the Falmouth exit of Interstate 95. Supervisors did not comment on the request Tuesday night, but have said in the past that they had no authority to intervene because the flag is on private property and violates no local laws.
Culpeper Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Frazier said Thursday that the board there has never discussed the possibility of removing the statue from the county courthouse lawn, which was dedicated on May 31, 1911.
“I understand, however, there has been some question about it and there are some emails out there,” Frazier added. “I have not personally had any inquiries [about removing the statue].”